§ Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ What sums are committed to (a) maximising the take-up by entitled applicants of social security benefits; and (b) the elimination of social security 3WA fraud over the next three years; and what is their estimate of the amounts by which, given the maximum success, take-up of benefits by entitled applicants could increase and social security fraud decrease by the end of the three-year period. [HL1188]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)We actively encourage people to claim social security benefits to which they are entitled. Approximately £9 million has been spent on a variety of initiatives to encourage pensioners to take up the Minimum Income Guarantee. Also, as part of the campaign a teleclaims centre has been established, as a permanent feature, to offer a modern alternative to the claims process.
A New Contract for Welfare: Safeguarding Social Security (CM 4276), published on 23 March 1999, set out the department's strategy for tackling fraud and error. The overall aim of the strategy is to have a benefit system which is secure from first claim to final payment.
An anti-fraud focus is consequently an integral feature of the implementation of this strategy and the work of the department, as is dealing with the wider agenda of error and incorrectness in benefit payments. It is therefore not possible to account for the cost of anti-fraud work separately.
We have made no estimate of the amounts by which, given maximum success, take-up of benefits by entitled applicants could increase and Social Security fraud decrease by the end of the next three-year-period. However, demanding targets have been set to reduce fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance by 25 per cent by March 2004, rising to 50 per cent by March 2006. The department has already made a 6.7 per cent reduction in the level of fraud and error in these benefits, the first significant reduction, and is on course to meet its first milestone of a 10 per cent reduction by 2002.